We are turning into the Penguins franchise, and slowly, the memories of Brodeur, Stevens, Elias, and Lemieux will be replaced..

Lemieux. As in; Claude Lemieux? The same guy that won a Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1986? Or how about Stephane Richer? The 3x All-Star.. 2x 50-goal scorer, who also won a Stanley Cup in Montreal, prior to coming to the Devils.

How about the front office since Uncle Lou took over? Jacques Lemaire.. Jacques Caron.. Jacques Laperriere.. Larry Robinson.. Pat Burns.. Mario Tremblay.. Claude Julien.. Pierre Mondou, etc. Or the shared principals of Montreal? The fact that Lou came in and said: "No facial hair, and\or jewelry showing?" --just like the Canadiens. No gimmick give-away-nights.. just like the Canadiens. No third jersey's.. just like the Canadiens.

..look throughout the history of this organization since Lamoriello took over.. you will find more Montreal fingerprints than you think. Lamoriello has gone on record regarding his affinity\infatuation with the Canadiens franchise. As a result.. the Devils enjoyed immense success. 3 Championships, and 5 Stanley Cup finals appearances throughout a span of 17 years. But now it's time for a paradigm shift.. and the new front office feels that the Penguins have the winning blueprint. There's nothing wrong with that.. it happens all the time in other sports franchises.

The legacy of guys like Elias, Brodeur & Stevens will NEVER be forgotten. Never! Embrace this change bro. We've got 1 playoff appearance over the last 5 years. It's time for healthy transformation.

GMs have really done their homework on Marty. They see a guy who's not only put up a .901 save% the past two seasons, but has really been more of an .880ish guy save for a hot streak or two, is old, and whose GAA benefitted heavily from the team in front of him keeping shots down.

..we agree that his Sv% should've been more like a .897 this season.. however, even WITH the benefit of the 4 game hot streak, he finished 47th in Sv% last year, among goalies who played at least 25 games or more! He's got 32 wins over the past 2 years, playing nearly 70 games. --for Christ sake, can't he see it's over?!

at this point i just want him to retire already.. before he starts embaressing his own name if it hasnt started already.. its time to go on

..oh believe me, he's already embarrassed himself in the court of public opinion. He's been embarrassing himself since he opened his mouth and began crying to the media in February. Reading njdevs & HF is down right comical when it comes to how the fans feel about Marty. Quite literally NO ONE wants him back here anymore. Congratulations Marty! --you've alienated your own fans.

No, no, no. The current outlook is better than the early 80's comparisons being made. How many times was the early 80's team even a contender for a playoffs.

I didn’t know you were trying to compare these last 4 seasons to the teams from the early 80’s. In that aspect, you are correct. The ineptitude is far from the failures of 30 years ago.

Pretty sure Beezer that Deboer is well over NHL .500 for his 3 years in New Jersey. (24 games actually) Why even bring up Florida? Multiple owners, multiiple GMs, multiple sh!t teams, and he still did a lot of good things with that team. The Devils have more ROW wins than almost half the league including a couple of playoff teams. Goes to show you how misleading the standings can be.

Beezer, do you think switching coaches to some NHL retread is suddenly going to make this team exceptionally better? Maybe, next year if the Devils win 7 more shootout games, we will be praising some new coach for really doing nothing more or less.

I’m not abolishing 3 seasons with another organization, for reasons of “multiple sh!t teams” excuse. I’m pretty sure just about every head coach who’s ever been canned will echo the excuse of; “It wasn’t my fault, my team just sucked.” Now (as if that’s not enough) we’re not to focus on these last two seasons either, because DeBoer got dealt a bad hand with the players on them?? So of PD’s 6 seasons in the league, the only one that deserves a spotlight is the one that was incredibly deep.. where he had 2 Head Coach caliber Assistants working under him?? I see.

..and 24 games above what??? Regulation losses? 32 losses via shootout\overtime are still losses.. you don’t just strike them from the record. We factor in DeBoer’s SO wins and OT wins into his overall victory equation, do we not? Oh that’s right, he only gets the benefit of the doubt when it comes to negative criticism. The good karma constitutes as good coaching.

Furthermore.. your “ROW wins” appraisal is median abstracts devilsrule. EVERY coach has outlying feathers in their caps. “Kevin Constantine has the best winning percentage out of any Devils Head Coach in the history of the organization” -- “Brent Sutter won 50 games in one season.. the most ever in franchise history” --These are isolated statistics. They don’t mean that they were good NHL Head Coaches.

This article you’re showing me is from 2 months ago. Tomorrow will be our 20th game played since then. (we’ve won 8 games since January 31st) I’d like to think there may be an addendum in afterthought here, no? Lip service and inside judgment(s) are two separate things. I expect the players to say all the right things publicly regarding their coach. --3 players of the 30 who’ve played this season I might add-- That doesn’t mean things aren’t boiling over on the inside.

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To answer your question on: “do I think switching coaches would improve things?” –I can’t say for sure. I don’t know who would be the next to come in. But #1) I’ve seen enough of Pete DeBoer. 5/6 seasons missing the playoffs, doesn’t usually get you a 7th season automatically. #2) I would at least like to see if another person can get more out of this team before Lou blows it up. I don’t think that’s so unfair to ask.

Bad karma and good fortune are variable exploits in sports, especially when talking about the shootout. DeBoer won 13 games via shootout in the 2012 season fans over-glorify. Maybe we already have a new head coach if we won only 6 of those. Maybe DeBoer wouldn’t even be here, if Florida scored an OT goal in the first round. Maybe if a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his ass hopping.

..I guess Woody Johnson really knows what he’s doing, extended Rex Ryan year after year, milking those 2 Championship appearances. How long does Lou milk 2012? –two more years.. three more years..

'7' has been spewing sh!t about Brodeur for 6+ years that I can remember but the reality is Brodeur has been a below average goalie for 3.5 of the last 4 seasons.

If I can defend 7 for one moment.. the anger\backlash from fans is NOT because of the past or present.. it's due to the future! The uncertainty about whether or not this season's his last.. and fans are getting fed-up being pigeon held by a 42 year-old, who's only point in continuing to play seems to be an effort to further inflate his stats, to the point where (he feels) they're unattainable. It's bad enough to put DeBoer, Schneider, and the fans through this goaltending fiasco for ONE season. But to do it again next year?? --that's selfish. You want to continue your career?? --fine! But do it on somebody else's team.. not mine! (yeah, I just said that) We're fighting for a fvcking playoff spot god damn it.. and 100 years of conventional hockey says you; "stay with the hot goalie". You ride the guy who's white-hot.. and I had to see a goalie, who's been playing amazing with a Sv% near .930, ride the pine yesterday because this organization needed to feed the ego of ONE PERSON. A cold goalie who hadn't played in a week, playing a game in an environment less suitable for a player in his 40's, vs a player in his 20's.

The Devils as an organization used to be untouchable.. not anymore. They preached team, they preached selflessness. They preached; "no ONE PLAYER is bigger than the franchise" for 30 years! --and all that went south yesterday, in an effort to turn a professional hockey team, into the Harlem Globetrotters.

*EDIT: What happens if Marty doesn't hit 700 even after next season? Does he come back again for 2016?? Is that how he'd want to be remembered.. as some compiler?? Because 700 wins off a career of 1991 - 2016, would be the definition of a compiler folks. --and if that's the endgame in Brodeur's head.. then have fun a blast ruining your career like Brett Favre!

Marty was not good, no doubts about that but our defense and pathetic captain were just as much to blame

..if it looks like I'm trying to make this seem overall simplistic, it's because it really is! Marty has been a .500 goalie (at best) since 2010. Over his last 250 games, he's manufactured 125 wins, since 2009. He can play the remaining back-to-backs, but THAT'S IT! I want to see this team ride Cory the rest of the way.

..seriously. It's over.. put it to bed.
To carryon like this is like a child taking a temper-tantrum when they can't take no for an answer. You're going to boo after your team just scored a goal because you're angry about not being able to chant; "you suck!" ..and you call yourself a fan?! --let alone an adult?

The Devils can play Nights in White Satin after they score for all I care.. just so long as they score. --and if your excitement ceases 8 seconds after because a song comes on that doesn't tickle your fancy.. to the point where you actually boo, you really should blush as a "fan"

The only reason why it's getting flack from some people as being "generic" is due to the fact that Devil fans are so used to seeing the Devils logo. But if you're new to the team, I could see someone wanting to paste a bunch of the NJ logo's all over the place. --because the Devils logo itself, is one of the best in sports.. right up there with the Yankees.

If this mask had the same design as if he were playing in say Calgary, only it had Flames logos instead, the knee-jerk from a Devils fan would be; "oh that's really cool" -because they're not used to seeing that logo as much. A mask should look good from far away imo. Mask's with too much going on never really grew on me.

..that said, I would've liked it if the entire mask were black & white (as the top portion is) without any color on it whatsoever.

Because misery loves company. Maybe if my team produced only two winning seasons since 2004 I'd feel a little differently.. but I've seen this administration play 6 playoff games since 2010.. and I'm hopeful that they can pull a rabbit out of a hat again.
..and if people want to roll their eyes on my positive point of view as a fan, or my optimistic take regarding the Jets on a Jets thread.. there's really a simple way to resolve that... FVCK OFF THE THREAD.

i can remember great trades and signings from the late 90's of andreychuk thomas housley gilmore nichols broten

Early 90's too..
Peter Stastny, Slava Fetisov, Walt Poddubny, Claude Lemieux, Stephane Richer. Lou will give you at least 1 name per season, be it an all-star player.. or older veteran. The exception came between 2001 & 2005 -which is where the boring moniker comes from. Albeit the Niewendyk transaction there were very little flashy trades\signings during these years, because with homegrown talent like: Brodeur, Gomez, Daneyko, Rafalski, Elias, Sykora, Niedermayer, Gionta, Madden, White, etc.. there really didn't need to be! Meanwhile the rest of the league was spending money like maniacs on "SuperStar Teams."

Marty is done as a nhl starter. I know lots of people want to keep him in nets, but he just is not a starting quality goalie anymore. He cannot stay healthy for a season at a time, and isnt all that good when hes in net. His S% was good for 42nd in the league last year. If you take out guys who played under 20 games, he was still 36th. This is the 3rd year straight that he has been under 30. 34th in 11-12 and 35th in 10-11. This is not a condemnation of his past contributions to the team, but a look at where he is now. Many of these guys love the game and do not know when to call it quits because they will not take an objective look at the quality of their play. Marty is quickly getting to that point. Hes a hero, let him play 35-30 games if that many. Call him the starter if it strokes his ego, but come game 10, if he is still getting played like the number 1 the Devils will have made the wrong choice in nets.

I’ve always drawn a parallel to the whole situation to the Packers & Brett Favre.. and I guess only time will tell if it plays out the same way. It almost becomes the detriment of a fanbase as retirement nears, in having a player whom is arguably the best at his position play for your team.. you know there’s a risk that it’s going to end badly. You’re dealing with pro-athletes and their bloated egos (and in part, that’s what makes them so great.. their competitive spirit) who don’t know when to let go, and transition from the game. VERY few of the greats bow out graciously.

I do feel that the whole; “Well, Marty can be a Back-up till 2016!!” notion is complete bullsh!t. He’s Marty Brodeur! There’s no life after being a starter, because that’s what Brodeur is, was, and always will be.. a starter. You can’t undercut Schneider to the point where he’s looking over his shoulder everytime he has a bad game. Marty has a cult-like following (obviously) and to put a kid who’s career hasn’t even started yet, in a situation where the fans chant; WE--WANT--MAR--TY after every bad goal, isn’t fair. To deal with this for 1 season.. okay, fine. I can go through with that. But after this season (and I know this is going to sound sacrilegious to many) the most healthy thing for the Devils going forward is a clean break from Brodeur.. a long-term contract for Schneider.. and either Kinkaid or Wedgewood the backup. *again.. the parallel; Would Aaron Rodgers have played with as much confidence having Brett Favre looking over his shoulder in Green Bay?? Typically, the legends of sports just retire when father-time gives them a tap on the shoulder, because their shadow(s) are too large to except a role in a limited capacity. We just pulled a major heist in acquiring a 27 year old franchise goalie, and instead of the fans relishing the trade in unison, there’s a divide based off of; “Well how is Marty going to handle this??” --which is silly, because Schneider’s feelings are JUST AS IMPORTANT to the organization, based on what’s left on the contract. If C.S. gets even the slightest feeling that his career has gone backwards in NJ from any type of distraction\controversy, then he walks in 2 years! And you tossed away a 1st rounder for nothing.. and are without any goalie.

I still hold out hope that this all can end well. I honestly can see that playing out. However, can I see the ending to the story where Brodeur wants to come back again in the same role as this season, for 2014-15? --the Devils saying; No.. if you come back, you’re a back-up that plays 15-20.. here is our offer for 1.6 million.. and Marty goes to sign with someone else, because he’s insulted by the offer, and wants to go prove he still has alot left in the tank? Sadly I can see that happening aswell.

..nearly 100 games played, 98 to be exact.
Still though, throughout those 98 games, only 26 regulation losses! The guys got 53 wins over his last 79 starts.. pretty amazing stats over the last 3 years. What's-more, he hasn't even entered his prime yet! Seeing Schneider play any less than 30 games this season would be a letdown.

The Devils better do all they can here not to screw this up. I respect the fact that there needs to be regard dealing with Brodeur's dignity.. however, if Marty shows an unwillingness to bow out graciously after this season, then let him chase 700 on another team.

Look, I'm done sitting here defending my team against the world. My gripe came at Manta laughing at me for talking Jets\playoffs in the same sentence. I don't need people who aren't even Jets fans to sing about the state of my team minus Revis. I already know the score. I know my team. I know Revis' importance to my team. But at 2-2, my team has as good a chance at making the playoffs as 21 other teams. There's an old saying; that's why you play the games. Let's play more than a few games first before proclaiming a teams season dead. It's Week 4, and it's WAY too early to determine where anyone's team is thus-far. I think it's silly to toot your opinion at someone off the basis of assumption. We haven't even seen 30% our offense in full yet thanks to injury. We haven't even seen Berry (who was a starter in Detroit) play a single down yet. Can I at least see my team in action against a team that's not undefeated first, before determining on my own the fate of the year? That's fair to ask no?

Significant injuries happen with all teams. That's why I'm waiting to play the games first, rather than say We're doomed. Who's to say that the Bills won't look to tank their game with us for a higher draft pick? Or the Chargers won't rest staters? The Rams lost Amendola for 6-8 weeks. He's caught half of Bradfords TD's. That's huge for the Jets when we play them.
And here's a little nugget on the MIGHTY Cardinals: Kevin Kolb is 3-10 career on the road. Over his last 10 victories as a QB, 8 have come on home field. His last road win came 3 weeks ago in New England 20-18, due to Gostkowski missing a game-winning FG. Prior to that, you'd have to go back 2 years for his last victory on the road: October 10th, 2010. The Eagles beat the 49ers 27-24 due to Nedney missing a game-winning FG. Before that.. you'd have to go to 2009. Before that 2008. Get the picture? For the record, I don't hate Kolb. But everyone knows the book on him.. the guy can't win road games.
Arizona is 4-1, and in the words of Tuna.. "you are what your record says you are." -Having said that, I expect the Jets to beat the Cardinals.

My point is for every 10 things someone can say on why the Jets won't win, I can give 10 reasons on why we will. And in the end.. THAT's why you play the games.